


The Mayor's Imaginative Son

by extremelyperturbed



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fluff and Crack, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-16 19:12:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16959888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extremelyperturbed/pseuds/extremelyperturbed
Summary: This is based on a mashup of a Hungarian folk tale called The Mayor's Clever Daughter and another variant of the same kind of tale called The Peasant's Wise Daughter.  A king wants to test a mayor's cleverness and his son helps him out.





	The Mayor's Imaginative Son

Once upon a time, there was a king named Hannibal who was bored and the problem is that bored kings become rather bloodthirsty. No longer satisfied with swank dinner parties, musical performances and boar hunts, he dressed as a traveler and decided to go forth and find himself some entertainment. 

While passing through a small town looking for a victim, he heard of a mayor named Jack who the townspeople praised for being able to solve any mystery and beat any riddle. "Oh, ho," thought Hannibal to himself. "I shall make sure to test that because it's rude to brag if you have nothing to back it up with." He did not write the address down but made sure to memorize all the information needed to contact the mayor.

After temporarily assuaging his blood lust, Hannibal returned back to his castle and asked for a tea cup. He shattered it then sent it to Jack with a letter commanding that he should not only mend it but make it better than new and that failure would mean his head would get chopped off.

Jack frowned at the message and the pieces of the cup. 

His son Will returned from fishing. "What is worrying you, father?"

"I have been told to not only mend this but make it better than before or I'll be beheaded," said Jack. "It is a ridiculous demand."

Will frowned then came up with an idea. "Mix lacquer with gold powder and use that to repair the seams."

"But the fact it was broken will be evident. Are you sure this will work?"

"As sure as I was when I solved the riddle of the red dragon." 

After the cup was mended per Will's instructions, Jack sent it back with Will's message saying that scars revealed one's history. 

Upon seeing the cup and reading the message, Hannibal raised his eyebrows at the response. It was audacious in just the right way. Curious to see if this was merely a one-off revelation of wit, he sent another challenge. He sent Jack a millstone with a message demanding he skin it.

Jack stared at both the millstone and the message, dumbfounded. He called for Will, showed him the message and the millstone and said, "I suppose I shouldn't just sand the outside and send him the dust."

Will shook his head. "No, no. Send it back with a letter that you will gladly skin the millstone once he has slit its throat and slaughtered it because no beast can be skinned before it has been killed."

"Are you sure that he won't just behead me?" said Jack.

"My idea worked the first time. I don't see that you have any other option."

So Jack sent the millstone back with a letter saying he would gladly do so once the millstone had been properly slaughtered.

Hannibal found the response clever and amusing so he invited Jack to the palace for dinner. Jack, hoping for a reward, rode to the palace. 

After an hour of wine and dinner, Hannibal realized that the man he was dining with was an intelligent man but not the one who had come up with the replies to his challenges and asked him who it was. Jack admitted that it was his son Will who had answered the riddles. Hannibal then said, "I would like to see your son but only under these conditions. He should not be clothed nor can he be naked. He should not walk, ride nor come in a carriage. He should carry a gift that I do not receive. Go home and give him that message. However, if he can not come as prescribed, I will command . . ."

"That I be beheaded . . ." said Jack, glaring at the king.

Hannibal smiled.

***

Jack went home and told Will about the king's request. "Oh, is that all?" said Will.

"All?" said Jack.

Will took off his clothes but threw on a fishing net so that he was not completely naked. He tied another fishing net to a donkey and sat it in so it dragged him to the castle. He held a dove in his hand.  
He was quite a sight to see. People thought him mad as they did not know he did this at Hannibal's request. Once outside the castle, Hannibal himself came out to see him and a small smile decorated his face. 

"Here is your gift, your Highness," said Will before letting go of the dove which flew up into the sky. 

"You have fulfilled all the conditions of my riddle." And as Hannibal saw much of Will as the fish net hid almost nothing and realized that no other person had any hope of challenging him, he proposed to him.

"You keep threatening my father with beheading," replied Will.

"I have no interest in upsetting my spouse by killing a father-in-law," replied Hannibal. And that was the simplest riddle that he ever gave Will to answer.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> https://youtu.be/xxCSKpbrmxA is an animated vid of the Hungarian folk tale. I feel I should warn you that it has odd bits of random partial cartoon nudity so you don't watch with your parents looking over your shoulder or at work. 
> 
> I have a fondness for fairy tales where the female protagonist wins by being clever rather than being pretty and they also have a higher chance of being peasant girls.


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